A few days ago, on Facebook, I had a little mini-rant about a Conservative MP’s decision to contact a number of UK universities, “asking them to declare what they are teaching their students about Brexit and to provide a list of teachers’ names.” Some scholars went so far as to call this sinister move “McCarthyite.”

Pretty much as soon as I heard about it, I commented:

This is the acid test among Leave voters too.

This will serve to distinguish those who wanted more freedom, and those who want Big Daddy Tory to wipe their a**e for ’em.

Leave voters have a strong authoritarian AND libertarian faction (small l), and it will be very interesting to see how Leave supporters react to this.

People who don’t see a problem with this will have voted out of bad faith or rank stupidity.

People who see it as a cynical, conniving breach of trust will have voted out of personal integrity.

Later on, it turned out that (if the politician in question is being honest, of course), it was all a misunderstanding.